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The Appalachian Vault Hunter's Guide, October 2103 Edition
Introduction On the first anniversary of Reclamation Day (and the twenty-sixth anniversary of the Great War), we have made an amazing discovery. The long theorized sixth vault has not only been proven to exist, but has actually been located. However, in doing such, it's only raised more questions then it has answered. Read on to learn more - A Morgan, editor Vault Review Vault 51 Location: '''North-Western Forest region '''Description: '''Recessed into a cliff face with standard Vault door. No externally accessible controls, terminals or other systems. No unusual design features. No access to interior yet discovered. '''Status: '''Sealed (Questionable; see below) '''Type: '''Experimental '''Commentary: The entry for this Vault in the Appalachian Vault Registry at Vault-Tec University was corrupted, but some information was recovered. From what was reconstructed, Vault 51 has (had?) no Overseer, and was instead directed by a ZAX Supercomputer. The Vault was intended to "test the limits of human tribalism". However, in June of this year, the body of a Vault 51 resident was found near Gillman Lumber Mill. Information on their person (including that recovered from their nearly non-fuctional Pip-Boy) indicated that they were the Overseer of Vault 51; a position that was not supposed to exist. Furthermore, the Overseer was carrying a note indicating that they were intending to make contact with a Vault 76 resident and then destroy the Vault 51 ZAX. Because Appalachia didn't have enough homicidal murder computers yet - A Rose Vault 63 Location: '''Mount Blair, Ash Heap region '''Description: '''Located inside a cave that is in turn hidden behind a concealed door in a tool shed. Features a standard Vault Door. Access terminal located near Vault door. Terminal requires access card; one is yet to be located. No access to interior yet discovered. '''Type: '''Experimental (presumed, see notes) '''Status: '''Sealed '''Commentary: The entry for this Vault in the Appalachian Vault Registry at Vault-Tec University was redacted. As yet, nothing is known about the contents and condition of the Vault. It is presumed to be experimental, given that the same entries listed Vault 76 as being the region's Control Vault. Given that the Ash Heap region suffers from subsidence and geological instability, as well as the extensive subterranean fires in its mines, I have to worry about the condition of the Vault itself - K. Mainglov Am I the only one thinking that the entrance is a bit overkill? In a cave behind a secret door on the side of a mountain? - R. Conn Vault 76 Location: Flatwoods County, Appalachia Description: Built into the side of a mountain. Exterior access provided through standard Vault door (with additional cosmetic dressing). Standard vault interior featuring Vault-Tec super reactor and internal resource recycling systems. Separate quarters provided for each resident. Type: Control Vault Status: Opened, uninhabitable Commentary: Vault 76 was the Control Vault for the Appalachian region. Its population were pre-selected from among the best and brightest that the United States had to offer. The Vault was fully populated with its residents and sealed on the day of the Great War. The Vault remained sealed for its expected twenty-five years; during that time, the population increased through reproduction while not suffering a single fatality. The Vault was re-opened on Reclamation Day, October 23rd, 2102. At that point, the Vault’s systems were shut down in order to encourage the population to leave and spread out on their mission, rendering it uninhabitable. However, its systems could in theory be re-started at a later date. For the moment, the Vault has been resealed. While in theory anyone reading this has come from Vault 76, I included this here out of completion as well as in the chance that anyone else finds this or reads it in future – A. Morgan You’re assuming that there are other people left in the world. Pretty big leap there – A. Rose Vault 79 Location: Northern Savage Divide region Description: Entrance is hidden inside a cave, behind a sealed door controlled by a keypad. Inside is a service elevator that is controlled by another keypad. The actual Vault Door is not accessible, and no details of the Vault’s design are known. Status: Unknown Type: Experimental (presumed) Commentary: Vault 79’s existence was long theorised based on information discovered in the Appalachian Vault Registry terminal (found in the ruins of VTU), however, the location of the Vault was only discovered on October 23rd, 2103. At present the service elevator that provides access to the Vault is presently immobile, and the keypad does not respond to inputs. However, the Keypad itself is still powered and, as such, a method may yet be discovered to allow access to the Vault. No details of the Vault itself can be determined. We do not even have access to a sealed or unresponsive Vault Door like we do with Vaults 63 and 96. Based on the information in the Appalachian Vault Registry, it can be presumed that this Vault is experimental. It can also be presumed that it has not yet opened, as so far no trace has been found of its populace (much like Vaults 63 and 96). I discovered Vault 79 purely by accident during one of my expeditions. It needs to be said that there's nothing at all to indicate that the Vault is even there from outside. It might as well be any random cave in Appalachia. - A. Rose Looking at the Vault, I suspect it's not our suspected 'evacuation vault'. It has no facilities to support evacuation, no access to transport routes or anything else like that. It's not near a road or railway station or even a helipad. - K. Mainglov So we're now betting on it being 63? - R. Conn Vault 94 Location: '''The Mire, north-west of Harper's Ferry '''Description: '''Located inside a cave. Features a standard Vault Door. Standard Vault structure divided into different wings/subsections including atrium, residential, reactor, engineering, maintenance tunnels and GECK. Also includes extensive seed bank and greenhouse facilities. Vault has suffered considerable internal damage including collapsed internal walls and floors, as well as damage to systems. Much of the interior is now overgrown with mutated wildlife to a degree that has blocked passageways and sealed off portions of the Vault. '''Type: '''Experimental '''Status: '''Opened, destroyed '''Commentary: Vault 94 was an experimental Vault. Its populace were pre-selected from a religious community that were founded on the principles of non-violence, communal living and the ideal of reclaiming the earth through agriculture. The Vault had no Overseer; while the community was headed up by pastor Gabriella Savitar, all decisions were made communally by consensus. The Vault was equipped with extensive seed banks and greenhouses, as well as a GECK so that it could be used to replenish the earth after a nuclear war in line with the community’s principles. The only Vault-Tec staff was apparently a single engineer who was in charge of the facility. The Vault’s population had no weapons; even their maintenance and support robots were disarmed. At the advent of the Great War the pre-selected population were relocated to the Vault. Only part of the expected population were able to make it before the Vault was sealed. The Vault remained sealed until its scheduled reopening on October 24, 2078. At which point, the Vault’s population sent out Ambassadors to make contact with the rest of Appalachia, supposedly to aid in the reconstruction of the region. Unfortunately, in November 2078, a group of Raiders entered the Vault and took control of it by force. After killing several of the population they entered the GECK wing and attempted to interfere with the device. This resulted in a nuclear explosion that killed everyone in the Vault before its door automatically resealed. However, the GECK survived and continued to operate unsupervised, resulting in rampant growth of mutated plants inside the Vault. These plants managed to then leave the Vault by unknown means and contaminate the surrounding area, resulting in the creation of the Mire region. A number of dead Vault 94 Ambassadors have been found across Appalachia. However it is not clear when they died, and how many of them outlived their fellows in the Vault. While a number of them clearly died through violence, due to decay and environmental damage not all the causes of death can be determined. I suspect the Vault 94 experiment was about seeing if the ideals of such a community could survive in the face of the realities of the post-war world. It also means that Vault-Tec only launched this experiment with the idea that a war was about to happen – R Conn Looking at the surviving Vault 94 terminals, it seems that the decision to populate the Vault with this community was made very late in the day. Perhaps Vault-Tec had at that point reached a conclusion that a nuclear exchange was inevitable based on the overall strategic situation – K Mainglov How sick can you get with basically setting up those people to die? After that, I’m not sure if I want to get inside the other Vaults – A Rose Vault 96 Location: Southern Savage Divide, Appalachia Description: Built into the side of a mountain. Exterior access provided through standard Vault door. Door is elevated with a large platform outside including a freight elevator (presently non-functional) and security booth. No other details known at this time. Type: Experimental Vault (presumed) Status: Sealed Commentary: Vault 96 remains sealed at this time with no indications as to its status or function. Its designation as an experimental Vault is presumed based on information found in the Appalachian Vault registry. A single terminal can be found outside the Vault that provides door access control. Attempts to access the Vault yield a message indicating that the Vault is functioning normally and that access is not required at this time. You ever notice that all of the Vaults in Appalachia that have above-ground doors face south? What’s up with that? – R Conn Given the Vault’s remote location, I have to wonder where its residents were coming from. It’s in the middle of nowhere with only a narrow mountain road for access and is a considerable drive from the nearest railway station – K Mainglov A holotape I found in VTU said that 96 was considered to be one of the best posts outside of Vault 76. So if it was experimental, then maybe it wasn't intended to kill everyone inside - R. Conn Editorials Our first year in review By Alicia Morgan It has now been a year since Reclamation Day (not to mention twenty-six years since the Great War). In that time we have explored Appalachia, fighting the threats that dwell in it while discovering so much about what life was like for those that survived the Great War. In the process we discovered that there were five other Vaults scattered across the region. And while we have learned a lot about them, we also now know that there is so much more yet to be discovered. The greatest and most devastating revelation was the truth of the Vault-Tec Societal Preservation Program. It was designed not to save lives or to allow the rebuilding of America, but as a front for the company to perform experiments on its unwitting victims, the Vault Dwellers that they were supposedly protecting. Even those Vaults that were functioning as advertised, such as Vault 76, were a part of the experiment, acting as control groups that the other Vaults would be measured against. While it is impossible to know the full extent of these experimental programs, it is also clear that Vault-Tec was fully involved with them at every level. While it provided advanced educational programs and was key to the training of Vault staff, Vault-Tec University also was very much a part of this process. Those on the Overseer training path were allowed to perform experiments on students through the facility’s Simulation Vault. However, those experiments were in turn hijacked by the VTU faculty to serve their own ends. One such simulation was underway when the Great War broke out, with disastrous results. We still can only guess at the full depths of these experiments based on the two we know of. On the surface, Vault 94 was fully functional and protected its inhabitants from the Great War and its fallout. However, those inhabitants were also essentially set up to fail, with an idealistic, pacifistic community that had no way to defend itself being faced with the horrors of the new world that they emerged to. Even then, its hard to think that anyone could have predicted the final outcome of the experiment, with the destruction of the Vault through its own GECK and the subsequent creation of the Mire. Conversely, while we know something about the experiment that took place inside Vault 51, we can only guess at its outcome. Controlled by a ZAX computer, rather than a human Overseer, the Vault was intended to study the extent of human tribalism. While we have no idea as to what went on inside the Vault, we do know one thing. At some point after Reclamation Day, the Vault’s door opened and released a single individual, purportedly its non-existent Overseer. However, they died before they could make contact with any of the Vault 76 residents. Sadly, all this tells us is that there was at least one person alive inside of it until recently. Of the other three Vaults, 63, 79 and 96, we know very little. The evidence we have found suggests that they were all experimental in nature, but what experiments were being conducted on their unwitting inhabitants remains unknown. Likewise, they all appear to still be sealed, but that is simply due to a lack of evidence of anyone leaving them at any point. Vault 96’s external access terminal states that the Vault is operating nominally, but what that actually means is another matter. We can but hope that all three are still home to safe, living populations, however the truth is we have no way to find out. The evidence we have found has made it clear that this was a problem not confined to the Appalachian Vaults, but spread across the entire program. And while we have no idea how many of the Vaults were Control Vaults, it is clear that it was distressingly few of them. Of the six Appalachian vaults, only 76 was designed to be a Control Vault. We also know that Vault 101 in Washington DC was planned to be an experimental Vault, although the nature of that experiment is unknown to us. As the residents of Vault 76, we were lucky. We were blessed with a safe, secure environment in which we could live our lives, protected from the ravages of war and the horror of the outside world. Those who were born before the Great War had the chance to meet, fall in love, marry, raise children and live out their lives in comfort. Those of us who were born in the Vault grew up in a safe, loving environment, where we wanted for nothing. We owe it to the people of the other Vaults, in Appalachia and beyond, to discover the truth behind Vault-Tec and its experiments. Our first place to start is the three remaining sealed Vaults, 63, 79 and 96. By discovering the truth behind them, and finding ways to get inside of them, we can make contact with those that are inside, and hopefully save them from whatever fates Vault-Tec had in store for them. While it is too late for the people of Vault 94, hopefully we can prevent their fates from being repeated. This now is the mission of the Appalachian Vault Hunters. Category:Magazines